hello thank you so much for being here
today I’m really excited and I’m so
excited to be here in College Station
giving this talk so I’m gonna go ahead
and get started so today I really want
to tell you the story of how when I was
15 years old I created a movement that
spread to 28 different countries I think
we often hear about these nonprofits in
these movements but we never really get
to hear the backstory on how they got
started we just hear accomplishments and
highlights so I really want to share my
story personally and how this ended up
getting created it starts when I was
three years old so my mom used to love
to dress me up in these cute little hats
and dresses and I was a really really
happy kid but one of my first memories
was my mom was doing my hair and she
found a broad patch about the size of a
quarter and I remember her just sobbing
I’m the youngest of five kids so my mom
has seen it all but this was the first
time she had seen that much hair missing
and she was scared she was like you know
is something wrong with my baby is she
gonna be okay is she gonna be fine and
so I was diagnosed with the condition
called alopecia alopecia is basically an
autoimmune condition that causes you to
lose your hair your body thinks hair is
a disease so it fights it off just like
it would a cold and I really really at
that moment even knew that there was
something really different about me but
I decided to kind of push it to the back
burner and realize like you know I’ve
got to move on from this and it’s really
not that big of a deal
so that’s kind of where I was at at that
age I hit middle school though and my
life totally changed forever I lost all
of my hair and in those pictures I’m
wearing a wig I’ll get into that
struggle more a little bit later but
that was like pretty defining moment and
then I like to move on to high school in
college which is where I’m at now to
kind of show the progression and even
though the story does get pretty sad at
moments I always like to emphasize this
because it also does get better there is
always light at the end of the tunnel
there’s always hope and I’d love to show
that but first there was a lot of
struggle I truly watched my hair fall
out strand by strand I will never forget
it
morning and how hard and how scary it
was it was the spring break of my
seventh-grade year so not good timing
and I remember just waking up and
knowing in my heart that something was
different I didn’t have to look in the
mirror I didn’t have to look at my
pillow I just knew there was something
wrong but I remember looking down at my
pillow and seeing so much hair I was
used to losing hair on and off during my
life but I remember seeing piles and
piles of hair and I remember just
running my hand through my hair and
getting huge chunks and I was so scared
I was shaking I couldn’t even find the
courage to go look in the mirror because
I knew I wouldn’t like what I saw I was
so scared I finally did find the courage
and I decided okay you know what like
you need to get up and go look in the
mirror and pretty much all of my hair
was gone all I had was a little patch in
the back of my head and I remember just
holding on to that and thinking to
myself this is the last part of me
that’s left that’s beautiful like after
this like I’m totally worthless and I
remember that’s the exact thought that
ran through my head and again I was 12
years old I was scared out of my mind so
to go into kind of what happens next in
that story I went downstairs and I told
my parents you know I am NOT going to
school without a wig and I I was really
you know emotional about this I was like
you know I don’t know where we buy wigs
from my family didn’t know anything
about wigs but I said like please can we
just like buy a wig I’ll pay for it I’m
also my things not that I had that many
things back then I was like but I just
like really need to wear a wig and so
they took me to where the only place was
that we could associate wigs which with
which was a Halloween store we obviously
knew nothing about wigs and beauty so we
went to like the sketchy Halloween store
that stayed open year-round and that’s
where we went to go get my wig my hair
used to be short in black and curly the
one we found was long and had like red
and bound streaks so subtle I have no
but I went to school and everybody
noticed I was so shy and I was hoping
that no one would notice I was hoping
that I would just kind of blend into the
background because I thought like you
know I’m so quiet that no one’s really
gonna pay attention but it was just so
obvious and everybody knows
and the bullying I faced was really
really endless like it would not stop
you know there was an online burn page
made about me I remember one day logging
in to the internet and finding a
Facebook account literally titled the
sauna burn page where people were
supposed to post me and statuses and
guests all the reasons why I was wearing
a wig
the first status was you know sauna
javonni’s so faked she was awake let’s
guess why and people were saying maybe
it’s because she wants a boy to like her
maybe it’s because she’s so quiet no one
paid attention to her people were just
saying all of these really really mean
things and I remember just crying and
thinking like I wish they could
understand for one second why this was
happening you know why I was going
through all of this
but there was just a lot of an
assumption I found notes in my locker
one even titled 50 ways to go kill
yourself and I just remember wondering
why does everybody hate me so much and I
faced a lot of physical bullying getting
pushed around finding gum in my wig it
was just a really big struggle and I
became really scared to go to school I
missed almost half the year that year
because every other day I would just be
too terrified to get out of bed but I
noticed something like through all of
that I noticed something really big
people said mean things to me they said
extremely mean things to me but somehow
the things I was saying to myself were
so much worse you know people would call
me ugly at school but then I would go
home and look in the mirror and tell
myself yeah you are ugly you deserve
that they’re right for telling that to
you you’re worthless like I would say
really really mean things to myself and
I kind of started thinking about this
and I was like why am i making this so
much harder for myself like this is
already a really hard thing to go
through why am I being so mean to myself
through all of this so I realized that
in any situation when you take low
self-esteem and you take low
self-confidence and you add bullying you
get this behavior called self bullying
essentially bullying yourself and so I
think that sounds silly like why would
you bully yourself but I think it’s
important to look at different examples
of self bullying to realize where it
comes into play so you know in everyday
life when you start a new project or
when you’re in school and something’s
hard and you tell yourself I can’t do
this when you’re surrounded by a group
of people whether it be friends or if
you’re in a relationship and just like
telling yourself I’m not good enough I’m
not good enough for this person I’m not
good enough for this situation when you
go through something hard or you hear
bad news and you know automatically the
first thought you think is I’m not
strong enough you know I am not strong
enough to get through this and then I
see this one a lot of like college
students and even myself I struggle with
it before I even look at a test or
before I even look at what I’m gonna
have to try to accomplish I just say I’m
gonna fail like I know this is not me
I’m not gonna get in I’m not gonna get a
good grade I’m gonna fail so we don’t
think about it that way maybe we do
bully ourselves a little bit and a good
way that I like to gauge it is you know
would you say this to a friend if your
friend was about to go into a big test
if your friend was going through
something bad would you say I’m not I
mean you’re not strong enough or you’re
gonna fail I think the answer is no so
why would you say it to yourself so
thinking about it that way really helped
me I personally started to struggle with
my own mental health I really didn’t
care what happened to my body I
struggled with self-harm and I became
really suicidal at that time and it was
just a really really dark time for me so
I want you to ask yourself like how many
times have you said something negative
to yourself like this because it does
add up and when is it gonna stop you
know what are you truly going to be able
to stop saying these things for me there
was a day where I felt like I really hit
rock bottom like I said I stopped going
to school I was so scared and I used to
love school I used to be that kid who
got really excited when like school
supplies went on sale and I had so many
stocked up in my room and I loved
learning and I remember I came home from
school one day and I saw my mom on the
couch and she was just sobbing and she
had this letter in her hands from the
school and it said that I was gonna have
to repeat the 8th grade and we
eventually fought that decision and I
didn’t have to it but I think in that
moment I realized that not only did I
lose my hair but I lost my relationship
with my mom I couldn’t talk to her
I lost my relationship with my friends I
was being very distant from all my
friends and not telling them anything
that I was going through I lost my
school I lost my love of learning like I
did not like to learn anymore I did not
like to go to school so I just realized
like losing my hair made me lose so many
different parts of myself and I knew
something needed to change like I
couldn’t keep going through this I
couldn’t keep letting myself lose the
person that I always was I made the
decision that I needed to start
practicing self-love so essentially I
had to take some of these thoughts that
I was thinking the self bullying and
changed them into thoughts that are true
and I know this seems very trivial but I
think you can really teach yourself the
things that you say about yourself like
you if you say something enough times it
becomes a part of your everyday vocab it
becomes something that you’re used to
saying so I got used to saying all of
these things that aren’t true so every
time I said I’m all alone I had to
reverse it and say no people care about
me you know it wouldn’t matter if I
wasn’t here anymore people care I’m not
alone every time that I would say I’m
useless there’s no point of me being on
this world I would have to say no I’m
beyond enough and there’s more than a
reason for me to be here every time I
thought to myself I’m unworthy I’m
unworthy of my mom’s love I’m worthy of
my friends love I had to tell myself I
am worth it and I am beautiful just the
way I am and any time that I was in
middle school which feels like it never
ends and I thought to myself I’m trapped
I had to tell myself no I can do
anything like I can get through this and
I can not only get through this but
there’s so many other things that I’m
gonna be able to get through so it’s
really simple it was just for me about
changing the negative into the positive
and I don’t want to paint a picture that
confidence means being perfect or it’s
this simple it’s not it’s it’s really
complicated and it takes time so
confidence does not mean being perfect
it means loving your imperfections
I still have days where I wake up and I
feel like I’m back in the seventh grade
like it feels like I just lost my hair I
can’t even get out of bed I don’t want
to go to the grocery store because I
know people are gonna stare at me I
don’t want to go to school because I
know someone might
say something you know those days that I
can’t stand the way I look but I think
confidence truly means loving the good
days and all those bad days no matter
how hard they get so after I started
radiating confidence and truly learning
to be myself the bullying stopped it
really died down and I think that’s
because I realized that once I learned
to love and appreciate Who I am
others were able to do the same and that
was really cool so I found something
that I like to call freedom and freedom
to me basically means being able to do
what I love
realizing that at one point I was so shy
that I sat in the back of the classroom
but now I’m so confident that I can get
up and share this no matter how hard it
is some days and that’s what freedom
truly felt like for me and I think it
looks different for everyone so I kind
of want to move on to the next portion
of the story after I went through this I
decided that I was ready to go without
my wig and I sat in front of my computer
I made a video and during that video I
pulled off my wig and I said you know
what this is Who I am and I posted it
online after I posted it online I was so
scared I literally just shut off my
computer went to sleep and I went to
school the next day it was my first day
of my freshman year of high school and I
told myself that I’m not gonna read any
of the comments because I don’t want to
change my mind about this decision I’ve
made when I got to school everybody told
me you know you need to go read the
comments on that video and I was really
excited because they said they’re really
positive comments like you need to go
see what people are saying and so I got
home that next day and I read the
comments and there were really cool ones
and sweet ones like you’re so beautiful
and you’re so brave and those meant a
lot to me but the extremely impactful
ones were I saw you go without your wig
and because of that I’m gonna go get
help with my eating disorder or I’m
gonna go get out of my abusive
relationship or you know I struggle with
acne and you’ve made me more comfortable
with who I am and at first I didn’t get
it I thought you know I’m going through
something so different than all of these
other people
why is my story helping them
so much but I just realized that in
general when you have the courage to be
who you are you just automatically
inspire other people to do the same and
I knew that I had to do something more I
knew that I couldn’t stop with just this
video so I came up with the idea of the
International Day of self-love you know
we have so many other days on the
calendar we have Mother’s Day Father’s
Day Friendship Day and I think these
days are important but what if we had a
day just dedicated to ourselves a day
where we could truly practice self-love
and go get help we could do something
nice for ourselves we could reflect on
what we’re going through
I chose February 13 for this day because
it’s the day before Valentine’s Day and
you have to really love and appreciate
yourself before investing in others and
since I’ve started that day it spread to
28 countries through my nonprofit we
have curriculum and a hundred schools
and it’s one mission just to spread
self-love so that’s something I’m really
proud of and something I’m really
excited and something that I hope you
all will celebrate so this is all done
through my nonprofit organization they
love your natural self foundation we do
empowerment sessions speaking
engagements like this one we have
curriculum in a hundred schools and we
fund raised over $30,000 sometimes I you
know look at this and I’m so proud and
so happy that I started it when I was 15
years old and I think if anything that’s
really taught me that if you truly
believe in your ideas enough anything is
possible you’re never too young or too
unqualified or anything like that to
make a difference like I think we look
at stuff like this and we think like you
know someone else could do that but I
can’t do that but that’s not true like
everybody has the power within them to
do something like this it’s just a
matter of finding something they’re
truly passionate about and going for it
so kind of moving on to the college
phase of it I have learned to love
myself physically a lot like I realized
that no matter what without hair that I
am beautiful but on the inside I was
still kind of struggling with self-love
I’m you know I was a full-time student I
like started trying to get all A’s and I
became really obsessed with studying and
working really hard I was interning
every summer I remember from like
morning tonight I would basically be in
my dorm I had a lot of trouble making
friends my first year and I was just
working so much but at the end of the
day like I would do
this and I would have my work in front
of me and it still didn’t feel like I
was doing enough so I started to kind of
ask myself what is enough like what does
that even mean I remember when I first
started I told myself when you hit
twenty schools that’ll be enough and
then I said when you hit fifty that’ll
be enough and then I hit a hundred and
for some reason like I still on the
inside wasn’t feeling like it was enough
I was like you know what if I get this
on every single calendar around the
globe and I still don’t feel like I’m
doing enough so is enough really the
highlights of who we are is that all
these accomplishments is it my nonprofit
or is it something else so I want to
share this poem you guys can follow
along that kind of explores this and I’m
just gonna read it don’t you wish it
weren’t true that there are hidden parts
of you pieces barely held together by
the smallest bits of glue you try to
show strength by acting brand new you
act like everything is always okay you
push every bit of darkness away when it
comes to joy you always speak out you
speak without any fear or doubt you
speak out loud for others to see and you
think these are the pretty parts of me
but inside you know what’s true this joy
doesn’t always define you you know that
you are so much more and inside of you
there’s sometimes a war there’s a war
that has put cracks in who you are
there’s a word that has given you scars
you have learned to hide everything you
go through because you don’t want people
to think less of you but you are enough
and don’t you know it’s these very scars
that make you so tough
it’s these cracks in who you are that
let out right it’s these cracks in who
you are that I’ve given you fight
it’s these cracks in who you are to help
you shine bright and I believe these
cracks should be displayed in plain
sight don’t try to hide the pain in the
tears don’t try to hide your deepest
fears don’t try to hide all of the
emotion your depth and beauty is larger
than the ocean and it’s this depth and
beauty that people want to see it’s this
depth and beauty that make you into who
you want to be it’s not darkness that
comes from who you are it’s a light that
shines brighter than the Stars these
cracks in who you are let out a light a
light that reminds people to fight it’s
a light that through the darkness guides
people home because they are reminded
they’re not alone and when people see
you’re right
we’ll turn on two and they will feel
brave enough to share the things that
they go through the cycle we’ll just
create more light and through the
darkness the world can fight when you
choose to embrace who you are your light
slowly heals other scars
I know it’s often hard to see but it’s
these hidden parts of you that carrying
the most beauty and so I wrote that and
I realized that you know it’s not my
nonprofit it’s not all the countries
it’s not the hundred schools that makes
me special it’s not the things that we
see on social media about everyone else
that makes them special it’s not your
GPA it’s not these things that you think
it’s your bad days too it’s your days
that you’re you can’t even see through
your own tears you’re really struggling
it’s the days that you have a meltdown
it’s the days that you can’t even get
out of bed and all you can manage to do
is watch TV being who you are all of who
you are good days and bad days is what
changes the world and I think that’s
what makes all of us special so
remembering that really helped me so
make peace with yourself first find that
joy inside yourself and then go out and
spread peace to the world and that’s
really what I hope that you get from
this you know find out how awesome you
truly are and go and share that with the
world
because the world needs you exactly as
you are so thank you so much that’s
where you can find more information but thank you
today I’m really excited and I’m so
excited to be here in College Station
giving this talk so I’m gonna go ahead
and get started so today I really want
to tell you the story of how when I was
15 years old I created a movement that
spread to 28 different countries I think
we often hear about these nonprofits in
these movements but we never really get
to hear the backstory on how they got
started we just hear accomplishments and
highlights so I really want to share my
story personally and how this ended up
getting created it starts when I was
three years old so my mom used to love
to dress me up in these cute little hats
and dresses and I was a really really
happy kid but one of my first memories
was my mom was doing my hair and she
found a broad patch about the size of a
quarter and I remember her just sobbing
I’m the youngest of five kids so my mom
has seen it all but this was the first
time she had seen that much hair missing
and she was scared she was like you know
is something wrong with my baby is she
gonna be okay is she gonna be fine and
so I was diagnosed with the condition
called alopecia alopecia is basically an
autoimmune condition that causes you to
lose your hair your body thinks hair is
a disease so it fights it off just like
it would a cold and I really really at
that moment even knew that there was
something really different about me but
I decided to kind of push it to the back
burner and realize like you know I’ve
got to move on from this and it’s really
not that big of a deal
so that’s kind of where I was at at that
age I hit middle school though and my
life totally changed forever I lost all
of my hair and in those pictures I’m
wearing a wig I’ll get into that
struggle more a little bit later but
that was like pretty defining moment and
then I like to move on to high school in
college which is where I’m at now to
kind of show the progression and even
though the story does get pretty sad at
moments I always like to emphasize this
because it also does get better there is
always light at the end of the tunnel
there’s always hope and I’d love to show
that but first there was a lot of
struggle I truly watched my hair fall
out strand by strand I will never forget
it
morning and how hard and how scary it
was it was the spring break of my
seventh-grade year so not good timing
and I remember just waking up and
knowing in my heart that something was
different I didn’t have to look in the
mirror I didn’t have to look at my
pillow I just knew there was something
wrong but I remember looking down at my
pillow and seeing so much hair I was
used to losing hair on and off during my
life but I remember seeing piles and
piles of hair and I remember just
running my hand through my hair and
getting huge chunks and I was so scared
I was shaking I couldn’t even find the
courage to go look in the mirror because
I knew I wouldn’t like what I saw I was
so scared I finally did find the courage
and I decided okay you know what like
you need to get up and go look in the
mirror and pretty much all of my hair
was gone all I had was a little patch in
the back of my head and I remember just
holding on to that and thinking to
myself this is the last part of me
that’s left that’s beautiful like after
this like I’m totally worthless and I
remember that’s the exact thought that
ran through my head and again I was 12
years old I was scared out of my mind so
to go into kind of what happens next in
that story I went downstairs and I told
my parents you know I am NOT going to
school without a wig and I I was really
you know emotional about this I was like
you know I don’t know where we buy wigs
from my family didn’t know anything
about wigs but I said like please can we
just like buy a wig I’ll pay for it I’m
also my things not that I had that many
things back then I was like but I just
like really need to wear a wig and so
they took me to where the only place was
that we could associate wigs which with
which was a Halloween store we obviously
knew nothing about wigs and beauty so we
went to like the sketchy Halloween store
that stayed open year-round and that’s
where we went to go get my wig my hair
used to be short in black and curly the
one we found was long and had like red
and bound streaks so subtle I have no
but I went to school and everybody
noticed I was so shy and I was hoping
that no one would notice I was hoping
that I would just kind of blend into the
background because I thought like you
know I’m so quiet that no one’s really
gonna pay attention but it was just so
obvious and everybody knows
and the bullying I faced was really
really endless like it would not stop
you know there was an online burn page
made about me I remember one day logging
in to the internet and finding a
Facebook account literally titled the
sauna burn page where people were
supposed to post me and statuses and
guests all the reasons why I was wearing
a wig
the first status was you know sauna
javonni’s so faked she was awake let’s
guess why and people were saying maybe
it’s because she wants a boy to like her
maybe it’s because she’s so quiet no one
paid attention to her people were just
saying all of these really really mean
things and I remember just crying and
thinking like I wish they could
understand for one second why this was
happening you know why I was going
through all of this
but there was just a lot of an
assumption I found notes in my locker
one even titled 50 ways to go kill
yourself and I just remember wondering
why does everybody hate me so much and I
faced a lot of physical bullying getting
pushed around finding gum in my wig it
was just a really big struggle and I
became really scared to go to school I
missed almost half the year that year
because every other day I would just be
too terrified to get out of bed but I
noticed something like through all of
that I noticed something really big
people said mean things to me they said
extremely mean things to me but somehow
the things I was saying to myself were
so much worse you know people would call
me ugly at school but then I would go
home and look in the mirror and tell
myself yeah you are ugly you deserve
that they’re right for telling that to
you you’re worthless like I would say
really really mean things to myself and
I kind of started thinking about this
and I was like why am i making this so
much harder for myself like this is
already a really hard thing to go
through why am I being so mean to myself
through all of this so I realized that
in any situation when you take low
self-esteem and you take low
self-confidence and you add bullying you
get this behavior called self bullying
essentially bullying yourself and so I
think that sounds silly like why would
you bully yourself but I think it’s
important to look at different examples
of self bullying to realize where it
comes into play so you know in everyday
life when you start a new project or
when you’re in school and something’s
hard and you tell yourself I can’t do
this when you’re surrounded by a group
of people whether it be friends or if
you’re in a relationship and just like
telling yourself I’m not good enough I’m
not good enough for this person I’m not
good enough for this situation when you
go through something hard or you hear
bad news and you know automatically the
first thought you think is I’m not
strong enough you know I am not strong
enough to get through this and then I
see this one a lot of like college
students and even myself I struggle with
it before I even look at a test or
before I even look at what I’m gonna
have to try to accomplish I just say I’m
gonna fail like I know this is not me
I’m not gonna get in I’m not gonna get a
good grade I’m gonna fail so we don’t
think about it that way maybe we do
bully ourselves a little bit and a good
way that I like to gauge it is you know
would you say this to a friend if your
friend was about to go into a big test
if your friend was going through
something bad would you say I’m not I
mean you’re not strong enough or you’re
gonna fail I think the answer is no so
why would you say it to yourself so
thinking about it that way really helped
me I personally started to struggle with
my own mental health I really didn’t
care what happened to my body I
struggled with self-harm and I became
really suicidal at that time and it was
just a really really dark time for me so
I want you to ask yourself like how many
times have you said something negative
to yourself like this because it does
add up and when is it gonna stop you
know what are you truly going to be able
to stop saying these things for me there
was a day where I felt like I really hit
rock bottom like I said I stopped going
to school I was so scared and I used to
love school I used to be that kid who
got really excited when like school
supplies went on sale and I had so many
stocked up in my room and I loved
learning and I remember I came home from
school one day and I saw my mom on the
couch and she was just sobbing and she
had this letter in her hands from the
school and it said that I was gonna have
to repeat the 8th grade and we
eventually fought that decision and I
didn’t have to it but I think in that
moment I realized that not only did I
lose my hair but I lost my relationship
with my mom I couldn’t talk to her
I lost my relationship with my friends I
was being very distant from all my
friends and not telling them anything
that I was going through I lost my
school I lost my love of learning like I
did not like to learn anymore I did not
like to go to school so I just realized
like losing my hair made me lose so many
different parts of myself and I knew
something needed to change like I
couldn’t keep going through this I
couldn’t keep letting myself lose the
person that I always was I made the
decision that I needed to start
practicing self-love so essentially I
had to take some of these thoughts that
I was thinking the self bullying and
changed them into thoughts that are true
and I know this seems very trivial but I
think you can really teach yourself the
things that you say about yourself like
you if you say something enough times it
becomes a part of your everyday vocab it
becomes something that you’re used to
saying so I got used to saying all of
these things that aren’t true so every
time I said I’m all alone I had to
reverse it and say no people care about
me you know it wouldn’t matter if I
wasn’t here anymore people care I’m not
alone every time that I would say I’m
useless there’s no point of me being on
this world I would have to say no I’m
beyond enough and there’s more than a
reason for me to be here every time I
thought to myself I’m unworthy I’m
unworthy of my mom’s love I’m worthy of
my friends love I had to tell myself I
am worth it and I am beautiful just the
way I am and any time that I was in
middle school which feels like it never
ends and I thought to myself I’m trapped
I had to tell myself no I can do
anything like I can get through this and
I can not only get through this but
there’s so many other things that I’m
gonna be able to get through so it’s
really simple it was just for me about
changing the negative into the positive
and I don’t want to paint a picture that
confidence means being perfect or it’s
this simple it’s not it’s it’s really
complicated and it takes time so
confidence does not mean being perfect
it means loving your imperfections
I still have days where I wake up and I
feel like I’m back in the seventh grade
like it feels like I just lost my hair I
can’t even get out of bed I don’t want
to go to the grocery store because I
know people are gonna stare at me I
don’t want to go to school because I
know someone might
say something you know those days that I
can’t stand the way I look but I think
confidence truly means loving the good
days and all those bad days no matter
how hard they get so after I started
radiating confidence and truly learning
to be myself the bullying stopped it
really died down and I think that’s
because I realized that once I learned
to love and appreciate Who I am
others were able to do the same and that
was really cool so I found something
that I like to call freedom and freedom
to me basically means being able to do
what I love
realizing that at one point I was so shy
that I sat in the back of the classroom
but now I’m so confident that I can get
up and share this no matter how hard it
is some days and that’s what freedom
truly felt like for me and I think it
looks different for everyone so I kind
of want to move on to the next portion
of the story after I went through this I
decided that I was ready to go without
my wig and I sat in front of my computer
I made a video and during that video I
pulled off my wig and I said you know
what this is Who I am and I posted it
online after I posted it online I was so
scared I literally just shut off my
computer went to sleep and I went to
school the next day it was my first day
of my freshman year of high school and I
told myself that I’m not gonna read any
of the comments because I don’t want to
change my mind about this decision I’ve
made when I got to school everybody told
me you know you need to go read the
comments on that video and I was really
excited because they said they’re really
positive comments like you need to go
see what people are saying and so I got
home that next day and I read the
comments and there were really cool ones
and sweet ones like you’re so beautiful
and you’re so brave and those meant a
lot to me but the extremely impactful
ones were I saw you go without your wig
and because of that I’m gonna go get
help with my eating disorder or I’m
gonna go get out of my abusive
relationship or you know I struggle with
acne and you’ve made me more comfortable
with who I am and at first I didn’t get
it I thought you know I’m going through
something so different than all of these
other people
why is my story helping them
so much but I just realized that in
general when you have the courage to be
who you are you just automatically
inspire other people to do the same and
I knew that I had to do something more I
knew that I couldn’t stop with just this
video so I came up with the idea of the
International Day of self-love you know
we have so many other days on the
calendar we have Mother’s Day Father’s
Day Friendship Day and I think these
days are important but what if we had a
day just dedicated to ourselves a day
where we could truly practice self-love
and go get help we could do something
nice for ourselves we could reflect on
what we’re going through
I chose February 13 for this day because
it’s the day before Valentine’s Day and
you have to really love and appreciate
yourself before investing in others and
since I’ve started that day it spread to
28 countries through my nonprofit we
have curriculum and a hundred schools
and it’s one mission just to spread
self-love so that’s something I’m really
proud of and something I’m really
excited and something that I hope you
all will celebrate so this is all done
through my nonprofit organization they
love your natural self foundation we do
empowerment sessions speaking
engagements like this one we have
curriculum in a hundred schools and we
fund raised over $30,000 sometimes I you
know look at this and I’m so proud and
so happy that I started it when I was 15
years old and I think if anything that’s
really taught me that if you truly
believe in your ideas enough anything is
possible you’re never too young or too
unqualified or anything like that to
make a difference like I think we look
at stuff like this and we think like you
know someone else could do that but I
can’t do that but that’s not true like
everybody has the power within them to
do something like this it’s just a
matter of finding something they’re
truly passionate about and going for it
so kind of moving on to the college
phase of it I have learned to love
myself physically a lot like I realized
that no matter what without hair that I
am beautiful but on the inside I was
still kind of struggling with self-love
I’m you know I was a full-time student I
like started trying to get all A’s and I
became really obsessed with studying and
working really hard I was interning
every summer I remember from like
morning tonight I would basically be in
my dorm I had a lot of trouble making
friends my first year and I was just
working so much but at the end of the
day like I would do
this and I would have my work in front
of me and it still didn’t feel like I
was doing enough so I started to kind of
ask myself what is enough like what does
that even mean I remember when I first
started I told myself when you hit
twenty schools that’ll be enough and
then I said when you hit fifty that’ll
be enough and then I hit a hundred and
for some reason like I still on the
inside wasn’t feeling like it was enough
I was like you know what if I get this
on every single calendar around the
globe and I still don’t feel like I’m
doing enough so is enough really the
highlights of who we are is that all
these accomplishments is it my nonprofit
or is it something else so I want to
share this poem you guys can follow
along that kind of explores this and I’m
just gonna read it don’t you wish it
weren’t true that there are hidden parts
of you pieces barely held together by
the smallest bits of glue you try to
show strength by acting brand new you
act like everything is always okay you
push every bit of darkness away when it
comes to joy you always speak out you
speak without any fear or doubt you
speak out loud for others to see and you
think these are the pretty parts of me
but inside you know what’s true this joy
doesn’t always define you you know that
you are so much more and inside of you
there’s sometimes a war there’s a war
that has put cracks in who you are
there’s a word that has given you scars
you have learned to hide everything you
go through because you don’t want people
to think less of you but you are enough
and don’t you know it’s these very scars
that make you so tough
it’s these cracks in who you are that
let out right it’s these cracks in who
you are that I’ve given you fight
it’s these cracks in who you are to help
you shine bright and I believe these
cracks should be displayed in plain
sight don’t try to hide the pain in the
tears don’t try to hide your deepest
fears don’t try to hide all of the
emotion your depth and beauty is larger
than the ocean and it’s this depth and
beauty that people want to see it’s this
depth and beauty that make you into who
you want to be it’s not darkness that
comes from who you are it’s a light that
shines brighter than the Stars these
cracks in who you are let out a light a
light that reminds people to fight it’s
a light that through the darkness guides
people home because they are reminded
they’re not alone and when people see
you’re right
we’ll turn on two and they will feel
brave enough to share the things that
they go through the cycle we’ll just
create more light and through the
darkness the world can fight when you
choose to embrace who you are your light
slowly heals other scars
I know it’s often hard to see but it’s
these hidden parts of you that carrying
the most beauty and so I wrote that and
I realized that you know it’s not my
nonprofit it’s not all the countries
it’s not the hundred schools that makes
me special it’s not the things that we
see on social media about everyone else
that makes them special it’s not your
GPA it’s not these things that you think
it’s your bad days too it’s your days
that you’re you can’t even see through
your own tears you’re really struggling
it’s the days that you have a meltdown
it’s the days that you can’t even get
out of bed and all you can manage to do
is watch TV being who you are all of who
you are good days and bad days is what
changes the world and I think that’s
what makes all of us special so
remembering that really helped me so
make peace with yourself first find that
joy inside yourself and then go out and
spread peace to the world and that’s
really what I hope that you get from
this you know find out how awesome you
truly are and go and share that with the
world
because the world needs you exactly as
you are so thank you so much that’s
where you can find more information but thank you
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